Case studies & content analysis

Question 1

What is a case study?

Answer 1

• an in depth investigation, description of an individual, group, institution or event

Question 2

What type of data does a case study usually produce?

Answer 2

• qualitative data

Question 3

Case studies are…

Answer 3

• longitudinal, take place over a long period of time

Question 4

What are the strengths of conducting case study?

Answer 4

• offer rich detailed insights into behaviour
• may generate hypotheses for future study
• case studies may contribute to our understanding of ‘typical’ functioning e.g. HM

Question 5

What are the weaknesses of using a case study?

Answer 5

• hard to generalise findings> small sample
• final report is based on subjective selection and interpretation of the researcher
• retrospective, accounts from family & friends may be prone to inaccuracy & memory decay e.g. childhood stories
• longitudinal - takes time to gather in depth data

Question 6

What is content analysis?

Answer 6

• A type of observational research that enables indirect study of behaviour by examining communications that people produce e.g. texts, film etc
• turning qualitative data into quantitative

Question 7

What are the stages of content analysis?

Answer 7

• coding
• categories
• count
• conclude

Question 8

Explain what occurs in content analysis

Answer 8

• coding -analysis of data sets/ communication
• analysis leads to identification of categories
• count number of times word, phrase etc appears
• conclusion

Question 9

What is thematic analysis?

Answer 9

• form of content analysis that analyses communications and produces qualitative data .
• involves identification of themes

Question 10

What is a theme in thematic analysis?

Answer 10

• refers to any idea, explicit or implicit that is recurrent

Question 11

What happens when researcher is satisfied with themes?

Answer 11

• may collect a new data set to test validity of themes & categories
• researcher will write up a final report, using direct quotes from data to illustrate theme

Question 12

What is a strength of doing a content analysis?

Answer 12

• avoids ethical issues associated with psychological research, no issues of obtaining permission > material studied already exists in public domain
• high in external validity
• flexible as it may produce both qualitative and quantitative data

Question 13

What are the weaknesses of using a content analysis?

Answer 13

• people studied indirectly so communications produced are analysed outside the context within which it occurred
• danger that the researcher may attribute opinions & motivations to the speaker or witter that was not intended originally
• lack of objectivity